Our own Mr. Lister, Sir — great forum name, BTW — discovered today that Hulu added the complete Robotech: Macross Saga to their full-episode lineup. That’s great news for any of you who (like me) haven’t seen all of it and don’t have the cash to go out and buy all the DVDs.

I first saw Macross Saga when it aired in spurts on the local PBS channel about the time I was in early high school. Since the episodes didn’t air in order — and I was unlikely to catch ‘em in order even when they did — my initial Macross experience felt like jumping into a deep lake to learn to swim. Each episode brought new characters, new story, and new cultural differences I completely failed to get.

You’d think I’d hate it, right? Wrong! There’s something truly magic about struggling to understand, reaching into whatever well you’ve got of sci-fi history and culture to get a grip on what you’re watching. I loved it right from the start — even though I still don’t grasp the whole story. Macross also represented one of the few opportunities available in those pre-zillion-cable-channel (and most importantly pre-internet) days to see something culturally different.

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